Miss Hosting — How the New Service-Minded Player in the Hosting Industry is Innovating Approaches to Customer Support Through Localization

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By: Sean Garrity
Posted: August 10, 2017

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TL; DR: Founded in 2014 in Stockholm, Sweden, Miss Hosting may be a new player in the hosting industry, but the company has been riding a J-shaped curve of growth since its inception. Today, Miss Hosting serves more than 35,000 customers around the world and attributes much of its success to its localized approach to hosting and customer support. The company houses its datacenters and teams in more than a dozen countries with a mission to directly serve local communities of web entrepreneurs. By speaking the native languages of its customers, Miss Hosting distinguishes itself from the pack by providing top-tier, personalized support to ensure the best possible experiences. For Miss Hosting, it’s all about delivering high-quality hosting wrapped in proactive, local customer service. And this philosophy is sure to propel the company toward continued growth well into the future.

Most modern consumers have experienced the frustrations that come with impenetrable phone trees and the less-than-stellar customer service of outsourced support departments. In an effort to save on operational costs, more than 40% of companies rely on foreign workers for tech support. However, many of these companies are finding that offshoring customer service is negatively impacting customer satisfaction rates. This is due to a number of factors, but the main culprits are poor training, lack of personalized care, and failure to speak the local language.

While companies may experience short-term savings through outsourcing, it is probably not the best route to take for forward-thinking businesses. Having an effective, in-house customer support team actually saves money long-term because it allows businesses to form relationships with their customers, increases brand loyalty, and ups the odds that customers will refer the business to their friends. And not many companies know this better than one of the newest players in the hosting game, Miss Hosting.

Miss Hosting’s Mattias Kaneteg told us about his company’s novel approach to customer care through localization.

The Stockholm-based company has only had its doors open since 2014 but has quickly made a name for itself with site owners around the globe thanks to its proactive and localized approach to customer care. With teams and servers located in more than 10 countries, Miss Hosting is focused on speaking the native languages of its customers, which helps personalize interactions and strengthen relationships. This allows the company to provide more than just top-notch hosting — it grants customers the peace of mind that they’re in good hands and that their questions will be understood and answered.

“In Sweden, everyone understands and can speak English very well, but it may not be the same in Bulgaria or Finland, for example,” said Mattias Kaneteg, Miss Hosting’s CEO & Founder. “That’s our unique selling point — we speak your language.”

Speaking the Language of the Locals to Serve 35K Users Worldwide

Mattias told us that when he first got into the hosting business more than 20 years ago, it was all about distinguishing yourself by providing the fastest service and the best tools. Today, things have changed a bit.

“Nowadays, everyone’s basically using the same systems,” he said. “It’s much easier to build a good network now than it was in the late 1990s. Being local and speaking the language of our customers to provide the best support is key to our success.”

Since its founding just a few years ago, more than 35,000 site owners have found a home with Miss Hosting. And Mattias attributes this quick growth directly to his customers’ desire to work with a local provider. According to Mattias, offering high-quality hosting services has become a prerequisite, as most major hosts all provide the same level of services. But being local carries a number of advantages.

Miss Hosting houses teams and servers in the cities where its customers are located, which allows for high-quality service.

“Our support team understands the customers they serve because they’re local and speak the language,” he said. “That’s how we’re able to provide high-quality support and services even though we’re still a growing organization.”

In addition to providing pointed and effective customer support, Miss Hosting houses its servers where its customers are located, which can help sites rank in a specific country’s Google search results. Mattias told us providing site owners a local IP in, say, Sweden gives local businesses a competitive advantage when it comes to marketing and SEO.

“Every country we go into we have local hosting, support, and marketing,” Mattias said. “We market ourselves in the local language. We’ve never outsourced and have actually put a lot of money into sending upper management to our locations to work directly with our local teams.”

Proactive Support Focused on Personalizing the Customer Experience

A big part of Miss Hosting’s service-minded customer care is seen in its proactive approach to support. Miss Hosting’s team doesn’t sit on its hands waiting for customers to reach out with questions. Rather, the company initiates conversations with new site owners.

“We call all of our clients,” Mattias said. “Every time someone signs up for a plan, we call and ask the customer if we can help install anything and if he or she is happy with the service.”

Miss Hosting is able to provide more than 35,000 customers personalized support with employees working in 10 countries.

And, again, Mattias reinforced that this is all done in the customer’s native language. He told us that this is a huge departure from other major players in the industry that only utilize India- or US-based support personnel. This, according to Mattias, is what is attracting so many customers to Miss Hosting.

“You need to get customers through customers,” he said. “And you can only do that if they’re happy with your service.”

Miss Hosting aims to be a one-stop shop in terms of support and service. Mattias noted the team is available 24 hours per day to field questions. And, if site owners need assistance with site migration or want to upgrade plans, the company’s staff is always ready to help.

“Service is the most important aspect of our business,” he said. “We do everything we can possibly do for our customers.”

A Seasoned Team of Experts Dedicated to Delivering Quality Hosting

Before starting Miss Hosting, Mattias was involved in building hosting companies in the late 1990s. This gave him a foundational knowledge of the industry and allowed him to work alongside some of hosting’s most experienced professionals. As a result, when Miss Hosting launched, Mattias was able to hand pick a very qualified, seasoned team.

“I’ve come to know so many people who are experts at what they do,” he said. “This is why we were able to put together a team of people with a long tenure in the industry. It’s a huge advantage when you’re a starting company.”

Miss Hosting’s team offers decades of combined experience to help businesses broadcast their brands online.

Because Mattias and his team have decades of combined experience in web hosting, they’ve been able to compile a mountain of data on industry best practices. This has allowed them to offer top-tier shared, reseller, VPS, and dedicated server hosting for customers worldwide.

Mattias told us that pricing and service levels have become standardized across most of the industry. Many hosts offer highly discounted rates on the first year of service. However, looking a few years into a hosting plan, prices for similar hosting packages become almost identical.

This is one of the reasons Mattias doesn’t view price as a way to compete in the industry. Rather, the experience and dedication to service his team brings to the table is what sets Miss Hosting apart from the competition.

“I don’t want to brag, but our hosting services are very good,” Mattias said. “You’re not going to retain customers if they’re not. Our advantage all comes down to our team’s expertise and how we’re able to interact with our customers.”

Combining Old-School Sales With New-School Marketing Techniques

While many companies are joining the outsourcing trend, Miss Hosting recognizes that this is shortsighted and will ultimately work to disrupt brand integrity. And site owners are taking notice.

“We’re the fastest growing company in Scandinavia when it comes to hosting,” Mattias said. “We have a huge part of the market share of new customers, and we’re growing every month.”

This growth is sure to continue with Miss Hosting’s new video marketing initiative. The host has invested a ton of resources into producing professional-grade marketing videos in the local languages of its customers.

By marrying the time-tested sales tactic of conversing with potential customers on their own terms and on their own turf with this modern video marketing technique, Miss Hosting is attracting an ever-widening customer base.

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About the Author

Sean Garrity

Sean Garrity is a Managing Editor at HostingAdvice with more than 10 years of experience researching, writing, and editing for numerous industry-specific trade publications. At HostingAdvice, Sean is charged with orchestrating the site’s content production, overseeing a team of writers, and ensuring the quality of feature and how-to articles. His goal is to keep organizations and entrepreneurs informed on the latest trends and technologies that can help them streamline operations and thrive online. When he isn’t wrapped up in discussions with experts, you can find Sean in front of his monitor, looking for what’s coming next in the fast-changing tech landscape.

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